Lamont Mandates Vaccine For Nursing Home Staff

CONNECTICUT — Gov. Ned Lamont has issued an executive order mandating that employees of all long-term care facilities in the state be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Executive Order No. 13B, which was filed Friday and took effect immediately, requires staff from these facilities to receive at least their first dose of the vaccines no later than Sep. 7. Failure of a long-term care facility to comply with the order will subject the facility to a $20,000 civil penalty per day.

The businesses affected by the order include nursing homes, residential care homes, assisted living services agencies, intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities, managed residential communities, and chronic disease hospitals.

As of Friday, approximately 55 percent of all nursing homes in Connecticut have a staff vaccination rate of lower than 75 percent. Only 21 percent of nursing homes in the state have a staff vaccination rate higher than 85 percent.

"Now that vaccines are widely available and scientifically proven to be safe and the most effective method for preventing hospitalization and death, it would be absolutely irresponsible for anyone working in a long-term care facility to not receive this protection that could prevent widespread infection among those who are most vulnerable from dying of this communicable disease, some of whom for medical reasons cannot be vaccinated themselves," Lamont said.

In the past three weeks, there have been 51 cases of COVID-19 among the residents of long-term care facilities, a sharp increase compared to the six cases reported over the previous three-week period. There have also been several deaths in recent weeks of residents who tested positive for COVID-19, which followed a period of 7 consecutive weeks without a death relating to the virus.

Matt Barrett, president and CEO of Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities/ Connecticut Center for Assisted Living, issued the following statement in support of the executive order: "Connecticut nursing homes support the Governor’s staff vaccination mandate policy. When implemented on a wide scale, the staff vaccine mandate will provide maximum protection for all residents, staff and others in our communities from the known and substantial risks of COVID-19.

"For these reasons, we believe the staff vaccine mandate should apply beyond nursing homes to cover other health care providers serving populations vulnerable to the virus, such as hospitals, assisted living communities, and home health care."

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